Canadians help with forensic investigation in Kenya after mall siege that killed 72 people

Canadian officials are providing “assistance” in Kenya in the wake of the Nairobi shopping mall siege, a Foreign Affairs official said Wednesday, as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police issued its first statement on the attack that killed 72 people, including two Canadians.

While neither the RCMP nor Foreign Affairs would provide details of their involvement, Joseph Ole Lenku, Kenya’s interior minister, told reporters Canada was one of several countries helping with the forensic investigation at the Westfield shopping centre.

“We are aware there are reports that a Canadian may have been involved in a terror attack in Nairobi,” said Sergeant Julie Gagnon, an RCMP spokeswoman.

“Canadian law enforcement and security agencies co-operate with agencies around the world on national security issues.

“There are investigative processes that police must follow in gathering evidence to determine any potential involvement by Canadians in terrorist activities outside of Canada,” she said, adding anyone with information should call police.

Kenyan authorities have described the attackers, suspected members of Al-Shabab, as a multinational group that included Americans and British citizens, but they cautioned Wednesday the terrorists’ identities had not yet been verified.

The suggestion one might be from Ontario appears to have originated from a list posted on a Twitter account that purported to belong to the Al-Shabab “press office” but experts say appears to be inauthentic.

Al-Shabab has denied releasing a list of the attackers.

After initial reports that two Canadians were involved in the terrorist attack at the In Amenas gas plant in Algeria in January, the RCMP sent its disaster victim identification team to confirm the men’s identities.

In that case, it was two months before the police force publicly confirmed it had found “Canadian human remains” at the scene. In April, the RCMP released their names. Both were London, Ont. men who had apparently adopted al-Qaeda ideology.

About 20 Canadians of Somali origin are suspected of having joined Al-Shabab but many are now dead. Another two, who had left Toronto in 2009 to join the armed Islamist group, became disillusioned and quit, according to a Toronto imam.